According to a telecommunications industry operational report released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, between January and July, the number of telephone users in China rose by 48.99 million to 1.03 billion, of which the number of fixed telephone users dropped by 12.42 million to 328 million, and the number of mobile phone users rose by 61.41 million to 703 million, exceeding 700 million for the first time.

The report shows that between January and July, the total business revenue of China's telecommunications industry reached 1.44 trillion yuan, up 12.2 percent year-on-year, and its primary operating revenue reached 477.49 billion yuan, up 2.6 percent year-on-year.